“JFK’s Early Campaign”1958

March 1958: Senator John F. Kennedy and wife, Jacqueline, campaigning for his Senate re-election in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. He won his Senate race with more than 73% of the vote, boosting his presidential profile for 1960.

In 1958, the second year of Senator John F. Kennedy’s “unofficial” campaign for his party’s presidential nomination, the junior senator from Massachusetts also faced a re-election campaign at home for his U.S. Senate seat.

Kennedy’s Senate race in Massachusetts, however, also figured into his presidential calculus, as he set out to win re-election by a wide margin, believing this would improve his visibility in the party and nationally. Kennedy figured correctly, as he did receive increased attention after winning 73.6 percent of votes cast in that race, the largest popular margin ever received by a candidate in the state. A poll of Democratic chairmen in Massachusetts not long after the election put Kennedy at the top of their list for the 1960 presidential nomination.

So, even with his Senate re-election campaign, JFK was eyeing the bigger prize. And throughout 1958, in addition to campaigning in Massachusetts, he also traveled extensively across the U.S., meeting with party officials, the media, and giving speeches. It was all part of his presidential and Democratic Party ground game.

Feb 24, 1958: JFK at the Sunday Evening Forum in Tucson, Arizona where he was asked if a man his age could be president. Kennedy, 42 at the time, responded: "I don't know about a 42-year-old man, but I think a 43-year-old man can." Photo, Tucson Citizen.

His speeches and appearances ranged from his denunciation of “venal and irresponsible” labor lawyers in a Fordham Law School speech in February 1958 – then referring to lawyers he had observed during his time on the Senate Rackets Committee – to an appearance and speech at the Annual National Corn Picking Contest in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in October 1958 where he spoke about federal farm policy.

During 1958, a few notable Democrats were beginning to endorse JFK for the 1960 presidential nomination – not least of whom was Gov. Abraham A. Ribicoff of Connecticut, who announced in mid-May 1958 at the Governors Conference in Miami his backing of Kennedy for president.

In June, Kennedy was on the cover of Newsweek, offered as a contender. In July, Cabell Phillips of the New York Times, wrote that Senator John F. Kennedy – “the handsome, well-endowed young author-statesman from Massachusetts” – was the man “many Democrats regard as their surest bet in the campaign to ‘Stop Nixon in ’60’.” By late September that year, a gathering at the Southern Governors Conference also indicated that Kennedy appeared to be the favorite Democratic presidential candidate.

Nov. 1958: JFK posing for portrait photo at the home of Peter and Patricia Lawford, Santa Monica, CA. Los Angeles Times photographer William S. Murphy took the photo for a story on JFK that appeared the next day.

In 1958, Kennedy was also stumping for his party, boosting Democratic candidates across the U.S. for the mid-term elections that year. On one trip he made into West Virginia to support local candidates, New York Times reporter James Reston, then traveling with Kennedy, noted that JFK was “quietly but diligently building support these days for the 1960 Democratic Presidential nomination.” Kennedy was in the state, Reston reported, “helping the West Virginia Democrats’ candidates in the hope that they will in turn help him two years from now.” Nor was this a “new adventure” for the senator, as Reston explained: “Ever since his strong bid for the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination in 1956, he has been methodically going from one state to another, meeting party leaders, speaking at party rallies and getting himself known.”

Kennedy also made a trip to Alaska on November 11-12, 1958, then helping to boost Democratic candidates in a special November 25th election, as Alaska was then becoming a new state. Following his Alaska visit, Kennedy headed south to California for a brief rest and visit at his sister and brother-in-law’s home – Patricia and Peter Lawford – in Santa Monica. Kennedy was also there to serve as godfather at the baptism of the Lawford’s third child, Victoria. While at the Lawfords, Kennedy did an interview with a Los Angeles Times reporter on November 13th. It was the week following the 1958 mid-term elections, and Kennedy spoke about the election and the Democrats. During th einterview, he was also asked about his candidacy for president in 1960, to which he replied: “It’s too early. The wheels spin around pretty fast. A year from now I’ll have an answer to that one. All I want to do now is thaw out. It was 4 below when I left Fairbanks Wednesday morning.”

What follows below is an abbreviated listing of some of JFK’s travel and speaking itinerary for the year 1958, highlighted with a few photographs and a couple of magazine covers also from that year. A number of his 1958 speeches are also listed below in “Sources, Links & Additional Information” at the bottom of this article. See also at this website, “JFK Early Campaign, 1957” and “The Jack Pack, 1958-1960.”

Note: The above listing of Sen. Kennedy’s travels and speeches in 1958 may not include all of his activities during that year, especially in Massa- chusetts where he had many multiple-town stops during his Senate re-election campaign. The full titles of a number of his major speeches are included below, in the second half of “Sources.” More photos also follow below.

March 15, 1958: Kennedy brothers, from left, Teddy, Jack and Bobby, at Gridiron Club in Washington, DC, where JFK delivered a speech.

March 1958: Jacqueline Kennedy and JFK during a reception at the University of Southern California.

March 1958: Senator Kennedy holding baby daughter, Caroline, with Jackie at his side, photographed in their Georgetown /Wash., DC home by Life magazine photo-grapher Ed Clark for magazine issue below.

The April 21st1958 edition of Life magazine featured the young Kennedy family on its cover, with the tagline, “Jacqueline, Caroline and Jack Kennedy.”

June 2, 1958, Wash., DC: JFK at Trinity College greeting graduate Barbara Bailey and her father, John Bailey, who became a key operative & strategist in JFK’s 1960 victory. Barbara Bailey Kennelly later won a seat in the U.S. Congress (D-CT) and also ran for governor.

Feb 11, 1958: Sen. Kennedy with La Salle College officials in Phila., PA, where he received an honorary degree and delivered a speech, “Careers in Politics.”

March 1958: Jacqueline Kennedy with the three Kennedy brothers at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, where Teddy (left) was then a student, Bobby (right) a law school graduate, and JFK (center), there to give a speech at the Law School’s first Law Day.

October 26th, 1958: Senator Kennedy campaigning for re-election and visiting with textile workers at the Charlton Woolen Co. plant in Charlton, MA.

Cover of “A Nation of Immigrants,” a book begun by JFK in 1958 when he was a U.S. Senator and published after his death in 1964.

Martin Sandler’s 2013 compilation of JFK’s letters range from those sent to Martin Luther King and Clare Booth Luce, to John Wayne and Nikita Khrushchev, among others.

Maureen Harris and Steve Gilbert have complied 30 of JFK’s speeches in their 2013 “Word For Word” book.

“Senator John F. Kennedy, Alaskan Tour Papers, 1958,” Alaska State Library, Historical Collections. In November 1958, the Democratic Party held a speaking tour in Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks to promote its candidates for Alaskan offices. The keynote speaker of this tour was John F. Kennedy, accompanied by former Governor Ernest Gruening of Alaska, E.L. Bartlett, and Governor William Egan.

Remarks of Senator Kennedy, North Atlantic Regional Meeting of the National Citizens Council for Better Schools, Washington, D.C., “The Role of the Federal Government in Public Education,” April 21-April 22, 1958, 36pp.